The Philadelphia 76ers are in the midst of a tough time. They are in the middle of an NBA resumption in Orlando with the playoffs officially set to begin in a little over a week and they will have to do so without one the game’s best in Ben Simmons who is most likely done for the season.
This now shifts a lot of attention to the other Sixers. Obviously, Joel Embiid will take on a lot more responsibility on his shoulders, but what about a guy like Tobias Harris? He received a $180 million contract in the 2019 offseason and there are new expectations for him.
“I would say an extended opportunity,” said coach Brett Brown pregame on Friday. “I just feel like he’s going to have more opportunities to do in the absence of Ben. I think, in general, with the group, I feel like it’s an opportunity to galvanize the team. To not have an All-Star and look at the team respond, I have great confidence in. As it relates to Tobias, I see it as an opportunity as he’ll more of a usage rate and more opportunities to score the ball.”
Harris had 23 points and 13 rebounds in Friday’s win over the Orlando Magic so he had his opportunity and he ran with it. He shot 4-for-6 from the floor in the second half in the win and he has done a relatively good job of being a leader for this team.
Then, one has to look at the other Sixers. Alec Burks was terrific off the bench on Friday, Matisse Thybulle and Josh Richardson played stellar defense on Magic forward Terrence Ross who is one of their top scorers, and Al Horford stepped back into the lineup and had 21 points and nine rebounds.
Terrence Ross shot 0/10 on the night last night, but when defended by Matisse Thybulle specifically, he shot 0/6 and he was blocked twice #Sixers
— Ky Carlin (@Ky_Carlin) August 8, 2020
“I think that there are other players, look what Alec Burks did, look at Matisse’s defense chasing Terrence Ross, and J-Rich chasing Terrence Ross, I don’t think he scored,” said Brown. “Look at Tobias crashing the offensive boards with Al Horford, we as a team ended up with 15 offensive rebounds, so you can go to a bunch of places, but I feel like there is a flashpoint where you realize without Ben Simmons, there’s some things that have to be done and let’s just start with intensity.”
The Sixers know they can’t exactly replace a guy like Simmons. He does too many things for them at such an elite level, but they do have guys who are capable of stepping up and at least filling the role.
“It’s hard to replace Ben,” said Horford. “He does a lot of our group. The way that we’re looking at it is we all just have to step up a little more and it’s going to give opportunities to guys on the bench and other guys to come in and have an impact. We really don’t know. We just hope that he’s able to get healthy and get healthy quickly.”
Simmons’ 2019-20 season appears to be over, but this now an opportunity for the Sixers to see what they’re made of. They will be able to get a closer look at the Embiid and Horford pairing and learn more about the rest of the roster.
Their next lesson will be on Sunday when they take on a desperate Portland Trail Blazers squad inside the bubble. [lawrence-related id=36501,36489,36462]